MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Joe Biden intends to compete in New Hampshire, at least according to his campaign.
“We plan to campaign vigorously this weekend, up and through to Election Day on Tuesday. And then we plan, the day after New Hampshire, to continue onto Nevada and South Carolina,” Biden spokeswoman Symone Sanders told reporters in the New Hampshire debate’s spin room late Friday.
For Sanders, Biden viewed the opening four contests for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination as a “package,” specifically when his party’s race for the White House included Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, senators from neighboring Vermont and Massachusetts, and arguing New Hampshire’s age demographic boosted former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“We know it’s going to be a fight. We know there might be an uphill battle in this race,” she continued. “But at the end of the day, I’d like to remind you all that the Democratic nominee since 1992 has been the person who was able to garner a substantial amount of votes from the African American community.”
Until Iowa, Biden, 77, had stubbornly said he wanted to win the first two contests, even as his spokespeople sought to downplay expectations for months.
But this week, after his surprisingly sluggish fourth-place finish in the first-in-the-nation caucus, he acknowledged Iowa was “a gut punch.” Then, during Friday night’s debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, he admitted he would “probably take a hit here.”
Symone Sanders late Friday repeated the campaign’s staffing shake-ups weren’t an indication the outfit was rattled by Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucus chaos. Earlier Friday, it was reported adviser Anita Dunn would be undertaking an expanded role within the operation.
“I don’t think you all should read too much into what you are reading in the newspapers and on the internet today,” she said, before adding the Biden camp didn’t “have any plans” to request a recount or recanvass the caucus results.
